Professor Leo Poon graduated from HKBU in 1994. He received his doctoral training in Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in University of Oxford (1996-1999). He joined the University of Hong Kong as a Research Assistant Professor in 2001. He currently serves as a Professor in the School of Public Health, HKU.
Professor Poon has strong interests on emerging viruses. He published over 260 peer-reviewed articles. He is a founding member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences. He was awarded a Senior Research Fellowship by the Croucher Foundation in 2017. He has been named as a top 1% most-cited scientist since 2005 and, an even more prestigious honour, as a Highly Cited Researcher since 2015.
His work primarily focuses on influenza virus and coronavirus. In 2003, Professor Poon involved in the discovery of a novel coronavirus as the aetiological cause of SARS. He is the first who decoded the first SARS coronavirus sequence. In the current COVID-19 pandemic, his work led to several key discoveries about SARS-CoV-2. His findings helped to develop evidence-based control measures to control COVID-19. He and his team currently still actively research on SARS-CoV-2, such as the molecular epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Hong Kong.
Professor Poon serves as an expert for several international organisations. He is a committee member in the Coronavirus Study Group under the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and he is also an expert in different WHO Working Groups for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus. He is also an ad hoc consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and for the World Organization for Animal Health.
SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus, was emerged in humans in 2019. The virus has been quickly transmitted around the world in weeks and led to the declaration of COVID-19 pandemic by WHO in March 2020. In the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak, there was very limited understanding about the novel pathogen. Epidemiological studies indicate that COVID-19 majorly spread via the droplet transmission route between people in close contact. However, the disease is also possible to transmit via the indirect contact route, i.e. a person becomes infected when touching their eye, nose or mouth after touching a virus-contaminated surface or object. In addition, there are evidences that facilities occupied by COVID-19 patients are heavily contaminated with SARS-CoV-2. In order to better understand the modes of transmission of COVID-19 in human populations, knowledge related to physical or environmental parameters that can control the stability and transmissibility of SARS-CoV-2 is warranted. In this seminar, we will discuss the stability of SARS-CoV-2 in different environmental conditions. The effects of commonly used disinfectants on the virus and protocols for disinfecting virus-contaminated surfaces will also be studied. In addition, we will also discuss the virucidal effects of different metallic surfaces. These findings can help to develop approaches for inactivating SARS-CoV-2 in environmental surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of fomite transmission.